Cribbox doesn't work..what will?

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doris2008

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Hi have moved my horse to a new yard and although this year his cribbing has reduced significantly he still wants to do it after tea, and occasionally when munching through a net.
Cribbox works whilst wet - I am guessing the smell. But he then ignores it and bites anyway! So it obviously doesnt taste horrid enough!
He has a length of ducting over door which he somehow manages to get a grip on, which I will hopefully replace at some point with some smooth drain pipe.
In the meantime do you have any remedies which may help? Someone has suggested chilli powder in the cribox bottle? May try that later.
 
Double_choc_lab said:
My friend has had to resort to a collar and the horse is quite happy with this and doesn't get stressed. She had tried cribbox, piping, jeyes fluid etc
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Won't be doing that!! :) YO doesnt seem to mind, but I dont want him ruining a nice door! He can destroy the ducting if absolutley necessary but I would rather avoid that if possible.
 
Cribbing like weaving is stress related, perhaps you should try to find whats stressing him so much and trying to solve the problem that way. I'm sure a 'nice door' is not that important.
 
doris2008 said:
Won't be doing that!! :) YO doesnt seem to mind, but I dont want him ruining a nice door! He can destroy the ducting if absolutley necessary but I would rather avoid that if possible.
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Out of curiosity - why won't you use a collar? I've never had a horse that crib bites but was looking at viewing a horse advertised as mild crib biter that was controlled with a collar, so quite interested to know your thoughts.

Thanks
 
AndySpooner said:
Cribbing like weaving is stress related, perhaps you should try to find whats stressing him so much and trying to solve the problem that way. I'm sure a 'nice door' is not that important.
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Totally agree. You need to find the cause, not treat the symptoms alone. If he cribs after tea it suggests he has ulcers.

Collars are cruel, they have actually been proven to create morestress. This is because the horse is prevented from carrying out a behaviour (cribbing) that makes it feel better.
 
We have tried so many things and remedies with DJ, but nothing eally seems to work. He now lives out and has a strand of white tape over the gate. I don't like the collars, we got one when we bought DJ as it worked in his old home, but he gradually started to crib through it and was only marking his neck, so colla was swiftly removed!

In not all cases, its ulcers or stress, of course they need to be looked into first, but cribbing like weaving, once a fromed habit will always come back in the extreme horses.
Chilli powder has worked quite well on a horse i knew a few years back.
 
Dowjones said:
In not all cases, its ulcers or stress, of course they need to be looked into first, but cribbing like weaving, once a fromed habit will always come back in the extreme horses.
Chilli powder has worked quite well on a horse i knew a few years back.
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Obviously if a horse is in pain from ulcers that causes stress, so its not either or.. Anything can cause stress, the hard bit is finding what the 'stress' is, remember you are dealing with a horse here, so the cause may be hard to see from a human perspective.

Its the stress that causes them to form the habit in the first place!
 
The horse cribs for a reason, just let him and manage it as best you can. Preventing it is cruel IMO and will just stress him more
 
Although I agree there must be something that triggers it in the first place, my horse cribs a lot and I really don’t think he’s stressed… it’s just what he does and I let him get on with it.
 
We have a cribber. He has been scoped & examined & had a fortune spend on investigative work and there is no obvious physical reason for the cribbing. It may have been originally caused by his management he was on professinal eventing yards, but it is now a behaviour which he finds comforting and no management issue is going to stop him permanently.

He has broken his stable door and exerts some pressure when he cribs, so I can entirely see where the OP's yard manager is coming from.

Having said all that, we have ours out 24/7 most of the year & he has a special post which he cribs on, it's like a comfort blanket. He cribs nowhere else in the field and is quite comical - even if you just give him a polo, or couple of pony nuts he will wander across our large hilly field to go to his post for a crib.

He also cribs when eating feed or hay in the stable, this doesn't happen often, but we just ensure he can't damage himself or his teeth & let him get on with it. He does have a lovely topline as a consequence, so there are some consolations.
 
My horse cribs on anything, we have bars on the front of the stable and she still manages to put her teeth inbetween the gaps and windsuck. However, i know why she does it, she came from a very abusive home, and was skin and bones when we got her living on little to no food. So im aware food is a stress point for her, she generally cribs the most during and after tea, and intermitently during her hay net.
A collar doesnt work and i dont like the idea of it either. I have cribboxed her stable door and her auto water as she was doing it on there and it looked like it was going to come off the wall - que flooded barn.
However, the advantage of this is, she hates the stuff. I applied cribboxed her autowater a year ago and she wont go near it so she has to have a bucket. It has long since dried up and been covered in dust but she refuses to drink from it.
Funny how horses behave differently to smells, mine is deeply offended by it and wont even eat her hay if its in standing distance to cribbox. Silly moo.
 
It would be interesting OP to know if you've ever had him scoped for ulcers.

But I'm also with those on here who say don't put a collar on - I don't like them either.

My horse would ocassionaly crib and windsuck - absolutely no reason for it, he just did it. And to be honest, I didn't worry about it that much.
 
I have 2 mares who crib. I keep them outside in field all year. Neither mare has ulcers but they both came from very stressful environment previous to me buying them. One of the mares no longer cribs at all. The other has noticeably lessened her cribbing. Same as poster above, they have posts that they can get their buzz from if they need to. I would never use a collar or try to stop them in any way from cribbing.
 
protect the door and let him get on with it....it is not worth the stress for either of you.

Before you ask, yes I have a cribber, infact I have had two been there with every trick and potion in the book. Best thing I did was to put thick perspex pipe over the top of the door and gave them their own private areas and let them get on with it. YM/YO are not bothered and neither are the other liveries.
 
I recently bought a pony for my kids who cribs, wasn't bothered about that as he is perfect for them in every other way. I put him on dengie digestive health plus and it has stopped totally. Very weird, he has obviously been doing it for years judging by his teeth! Very weird. If you are not so fussed about the cribbing just make sure he has something softer to grab so he doesn't destroy his incisors.
 
I have a youngster who cribs after his breakfast and dinner. I have tried cribbox and various other pastes and sprays and nothing works. I did try a miracle collar on him, he seemed happy enough in it and it stopped him cribbing but i hated it! I feel that the collars are just masking the problem.

I have just bought him a tub of Feedmark Settelex, he only started it yesterday so its too early to tell if it works, but i have to say last night and this morning after finishing his meal he went off and grazed rather than going straight to the gate to crib! It will be interesting to see if this does cure, or at least improve his cribbing, but already i am quite impressed with the results!
 
I bought a horse from Germany who windsucked and regularly gave himself colic because of it. Eventually I had a metal top fitted to the door. It's too wide for him to get hold of and literally stopped him overnight. He is not at all stressed and will occasionally have a suck on fence posts but nothing too major.
Settlex did nothing to stop him. Apparently spreading another horses droppings will stop them but it's not very pleasant.
 
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